Well, I almost died when Ben threw that pic on the first drive. My thoughts were ... "If we are going to win the Superbowl, those "safe" throws HAVE to work, 'cause depending on the long ball or the run up the middle alone won't get us there".

Has anyone read what he might have said about it ... wet ball, "didn't see Vrabel", etc.?

And, thank goodness (I think) it seems among Ben's strengths are the ability to completely forget about a huge f* up and get right on the bike again. Almost a free safety kind of mentality ...

For the record, he now has more TDs than pics (13-12) - :tt1 :Cheers (no sarcasm here, I swear, I'm very happy about this!).

RKSteel

12-01-2008, 01:41 PM

Q: How hard was it to stay positive after the first drive interception?

BR: : The first pass, [Mike] Vrabel, heís a heck of a player and he made a great play on it. Heath [Miller] was open behind him and he goes up and catches it and it was one of the frustrating things. I just talked to Kevin Colbert, he said Ďitís not how you start, itís how you finishí and thatís what we did a good job of.

Q: How hard was it to stay positive after the first drive interception?

BR: : The first pass, [Mike] Vrabel, heís a heck of a player and he made a great play on it. Heath [Miller] was open behind him and he goes up and catches it and it was one of the frustrating things. I just talked to Kevin Colbert, he said Ďitís not how you start, itís how you finishí and thatís what we did a good job of.

Not only do the coaches have all the football cliches down, but even the G.M. is giving us the "itís not how you start, itís how you finish" treatment. Next thing we know, we'll hear Dan Rooney referring to the negotiations with his brothers to buy the team in terms of "splash plays." :lol:

eniparadoxgma

12-02-2008, 03:13 AM

Q: How hard was it to stay positive after the first drive interception?

BR: : The first pass, [Mike] Vrabel, heís a heck of a player and he made a great play on it. Heath [Miller] was open behind him and he goes up and catches it and it was one of the frustrating things. I just talked to Kevin Colbert, he said Ďitís not how you start, itís how you finishí and thatís what we did a good job of.

Not only do the coaches have all the football cliches down, but even the G.M. is giving us the "itís not how you start, itís how you finish" treatment. Next thing we know, we'll hear Dan Rooney referring to the negotiations with his brothers to buy the team in terms of "splash plays." :lol:

ahahahaha :Clap

ikestops85

12-02-2008, 12:21 PM

9 out of 10 times that ball clears the LBer and is a completion. The tenth time the LBer gets a hand on it and deflects it. Only about 0.01% of the time will the LBer intercept that ball. I think it was more that Vrabel made a great play than Ben made a bad pass.

Note: 75% of the statistics in this post were made up. :lol:

proudpittsburgher

12-02-2008, 12:24 PM

9 out of 10 times that ball clears the LBer and is a completion. The tenth time the LBer gets a hand on it and deflects it. Only about 0.01% of the time will the LBer intercept that ball. I think it was more that Vrabel made a great play than Ben made a bad pass.

Note: 75% of the statistics in this post were made up. :lol:

Thank you for saying this, because I was going to. I've heard so many "bone-headed interception" comments that I want to puke. Vrabel made one hell of a play on that ball. I can't fault Ben for that. If he lobs it, it likely gets picked because there was a defender right there. If he hangs on to it, he will take a sack and people will continue to be outraged over him holding on to the ball so long. Vrabel made one hell of a play, let's leave it at that.

SteelTorch

12-02-2008, 12:38 PM

Having looked at the play, yes, that wasn't as bad an INT as I thought.

I've said for a while now that, save for a couple games, Ben's been playing better than his stats show. Shoulder and O-line aside, a bunch of his struggles have been coming from poor receiver play. Dropped passes and lack of separation have hurt his performance quite a bit this season.

Here's hoping that our O finally "clicks" in time for playoffs. :Bow

Ghost

12-02-2008, 01:12 PM

I'm really not being a smartass here but was was so incredible about Vrabel's INT? He was standing directly between Ben and Miller and he reached up his hands and intercepted a ball that was thrown too low and right to him. There was nothing particulary athletic about that play.

RuthlessBurgher

12-02-2008, 01:16 PM

I'm really not being a smartass here but was was so incredible about Vrabel's INT? He was standing directly between Ben and Miller and he reached up his hands and intercepted a ball that was thrown too low and right to him. There was nothing particulary athletic about that play.

I'm really not being a smartass here but was was so incredible about Vrabel's INT? He was standing directly between Ben and Miller and he reached up his hands and intercepted a ball that was thrown too low and right to him. There was nothing particulary athletic about that play.

What was particularly athletic about the interception was the reaction time. Most passes that are thrown to receivers who are 10 yards or less down field zip right over linemen and linebacker's heads without being intercepted. If balls of this type were regularly intercepted the QB's passer rating would go way down.

I still think it was a great play by Vrabel. Vrabel was close to Ben, the ball was thrown hard and was above his head. It would have been a "good" play by him just to deflect it but to actually hang on to it made it a great play.

Mel Blount's G

12-03-2008, 07:48 PM

I'm really not being a smartass here but was was so incredible about Vrabel's INT? He was standing directly between Ben and Miller and he reached up his hands and intercepted a ball that was thrown too low and right to him. There was nothing particulary athletic about that play.

What was particularly athletic about the interception was the reaction time. Most passes that are thrown to receivers who are 10 yards or less down field zip right over linemen and linebacker's heads without being intercepted. If balls of this type were regularly intercepted the QB's passer rating would go way down.

I still think it was a great play by Vrabel. Vrabel was close to Ben, the ball was thrown hard and was above his head. It would have been a "good" play by him just to deflect it but to actually hang on to it made it a great play.
I agree with this. A whole lotta lb's/de's do not have the hands to make that clean catch. We have a cb on our team who doesn't even come close to making that catch, or any other for that matter :HeadBanger

ANPSTEEL

12-03-2008, 11:20 PM

Q: How hard was it to stay positive after the first drive interception?

BR: : The first pass, [Mike] Vrabel, heís a heck of a player and he made a great play on it. Heath [Miller] was open behind him and he goes up and catches it and it was one of the frustrating things. I just talked to Kevin Colbert, he said Ďitís not how you start, itís how you finishí and thatís what we did a good job of.

Not only do the coaches have all the football cliches down, but even the G.M. is giving us the "itís not how you start, itís how you finish" treatment. Next thing we know, we'll hear Dan Rooney referring to the negotiations with his brothers to buy the team in terms of "splash plays." :lol:

Dan, how are the negotiations coming along.

Well, you know we don't look ahead. We came to agreement with Patrick earlier today- and we'll take that 'victory' and put it with the others, while i prepare to lowball John next week.